


Time Warp

by bkwrm523



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-06-29 22:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15738693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bkwrm523/pseuds/bkwrm523
Summary: The mysterious time traveler that the Fourth Doctor keeps meeting finally stops long enough to chat.





	1. The Second Time on Gallifrey, part 1

“How did you catch her?  Finally manage to trace her vortex manipulator?”

“No, Doctor.  And we didn’t catch her, exactly.  She came to us and surrendered.  As soon as we got her into a cell, she said she would only talk to you.”

“Interesting.”

“At the moment, most of us would simply rather mind wipe her and be done with.”

“But not you.  You like all the facts on a case before proceeding, yes?”

“There is also the inference that her theft was not for personal gain.  She stole only one vial, and the contents would have saved the life of a Time Lord.  If that was what she intended to use it for.”

“I now understand, Castellan, that that was her intention.  She used it on me, and saved my life.”

“Did she now?  How interesting.  Who is she, exactly?  We have been unable to find out.”

“I’m not sure.  But she’s gone through a lot of trouble to speak to me.  I intend to ask her.”

* * *

 

Trillian looked up as she heard footsteps echoing from the long hallway leading to her cell.  She was in a chair, hands cuffed behind her back and her legs cuffed the front two chair legs.  Her treatment at the hands of the Time Lords had been much better than she had expected, all things considered.  She had been given food and water (and it wasn’t even drugged), and medical attention once they realized how badly hurt she was.  There was a little bit of torture in her interrogations at first, but that ended abruptly.  Probably, she had speculated, a higher-up had gotten wind of the torture and disapproved.

Finally, the source of the footsteps came just into view.  Longish brown coat, really long scarf, curly brown hair, check.  Trillian straightened in her chair and gave him a calm and level look, ignoring the two behind him.  One of them looked like another of the many guards in the place.  The second she recognized from some of her interrogations.  He’d seemed like a good enough guy, but Trillian hadn’t budged on her demand.  That had made him very annoyed with her.  The two Time Lords finally reached her, and the front wall of her cell hummed and disappeared long enough for them to enter.

“Doctor.”  Trillian greeted him before anyone else could speak.  “You’re a hard man to reach.”


	2. Space Station Nerva

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor finishes up his latest adventure with Harry and Sarah Jane on Space Station Nerva, only to meet an unexpected visitor.

“I think I’ll just set the drift compensators.”  The Doctor said, grinning at the reappearance of his TARDIS.  “We don’t want her slipping through our fingers.”  The Doctor disappeared inside, and Sarah Jane saw Harry start to reappear in the matter transmat.  Just then, there were several loud bangs of gunfire from inside the ship.  Sarah gave Harry a startled glance.

“Did you hear that?”  She asked him.  Harry gave a grim nod.

“Sounded like this direction,” Harry replied, pointing down one of the hallways.  “We’d better tell the Doctor.  Wonder what it was?”

“You tell him.”  Sarah replied, impatient.  “Someone could be hurt!”  Not waiting for a reply, Sarah ran off towards the sound.

“Sarah!”  Harry called, and started to follow her, before the Doctor exited the TARDIS.

“Was someone saying something?  Where’s Sarah?”  The Doctor asked, looking bewildered.

“We heard gunfire, and she ran off towards it!”  Harry exclaimed.

“Where?!”  The Doctor demanded.  Harry pointed and they both ran.

* * *

 

_a few minutes prior_

Trillian crept carefully towards the Cyberman, her invisibility shield on.  It couldn’t see her, so hopefully it wouldn’t hear her.  It was fiddling with a locked door, and its back was to her.  Perfect.  She slowly slid her blaster out of its sheath on her thigh, and aimed it carefully at its head.  A blaster alone wouldn’t do much good against one of the old fashioned Cybermen from  _this_  time, much less the newer one she hunted.  But, if her plan worked, she might be able to fell what was left of the human inside.  Careful aiming; the spot would have to be chosen precisely, and she fired.  Repeatedly.  The Cyberman stumbled forward as she emptied half her clip into the thing, hitting the same spot on the back of its head until the metal there was cherry-red with heat.  Quickly, Trillian then drew her pistol from the sheath on the opposite thigh, and fired several bullets at the same spot.  After a couple dents, one of them punctured the metal and hit brain.  The Cyberman made an electronic groaning noise, then fell.  Trillian grinned, holstered her guns, and turned off the invisibility shield.

And then nearly drew her pistol again as she heard someone slide to a halt behind her.

“What-”  Came a confused voice.  Trillian spun immediately, and recognized Sarah Jane Smith a few feet from her.

“Wait!  Stay back!”  Trillian replied, holding up a hand.  “I need to make sure it’s dead first.”  Sarah Jane looked like she wanted to pepper her with more questions, but stayed put.  Trillian turned her attention away from Sarah, and walked carefully towards the Cyberman.  Once close enough, she nudged it carefully with her foot.

“It looks dead enough.”  Sarah spoke.  “You should get away from that until the Doctor comes.”  Trillian turned from the Cyberman and took a couple steps towards Sarah, intending to reassure her.  

Before she could speak, Trillian felt something grab her foot and yank her off her feet.  Her pistol got knocked from its sheath and slid across the floor, Trillian didn’t note where.  Fallen onto her back, Trillian looked ahead of her to see exactly what she dreaded.  The Cyberman’s body, now denied its human component, and reached tentacles out for the first qualifying human in reach: Trillian herself.

Trillian heard Sarah yell, and quickly turned her head, holding out a hand to stop her.

“Stay back!”  Trillian yelled.  “If you get too close, it might decide it likes you better than me!”

“What likes- what the-” Harry Sullivan yelled in surprise as he and the Doctor rounded the corner behind Sarah.

“That is an entirely new sort of Cyberman!”  The Doctor exclaimed in delight.  “I wonder where it came from?”

Trillian kicked with her free leg at the tentacles, her hands grasping at the wall for a hold, anything, as it pulled her towards it.  At her defiance, one metal tentacle headed up red hot, burning her ankle and making her give a yell of pain.

“Doctor!”  Sarah Jane scolded before Trillian could manage anything.  “Is this really the time?  What’s it doing?  And more importantly, how do we stop it?!”

“I have absolutely no idea.”  The Doctor replied, still looking fascinated.

“It needs a human component.”  Trillian answered.  “I just killed its old one, and now it wants me.”  Her kicking had had some effect, but not much.  Both her feet were now encased in tentacles, and she couldn’t move her legs much.

“Right.  I’ve got an idea.  Hold on!”  The Doctor said, then vanished.

“Doctor!”  Sarah called after him.

“Not much else I can do.”  Trillian grumbled.

“Maybe I can help.”  Harry said, and Trillian turned to see him walking towards her.

“NO!”  Trillian and Sarah yelled at the same time.

“You heard her.”  Sarah continued as Trillian struggled to kick away and hold off the tentacles.  She’d found a handhold on the wall and was resisting its attempts to pull her towards it.  But the tentacles had nearly reached her knees, and now she couldn’t move her legs at all.  “That thing wants a human component.  If you get too close it might come after you too.”

“Find my gun.”  Trillian told them.  “It slid off somewhere.”  There were a few agonizing moments of scuffling (Trillian didn’t take attention away from her current predicament to look) before there came an exclamation.

“I’ve got it,” Sarah told her.  “But I can’t get a clear shot at it.  Move your head to the side.”

“Don’t bother shooting the Cyberman.”  Trillian told her.  “It won’t do any good.  Shoot me.  Then run.”  A long moment of dead silence.

“Keep your spirits up!”  Harry spoke.  “The Doctor may still come through!  He’s jolly good at situations like this!”

“Harry’s right.”  Sarah spoke with what Trillian suspected was enforced calm.  “We’re going to help you, not kill you.”

“This thing is trying to turn me into a Cyberman.”  Trillian grunted out.  The tentacles were burning her again, and it was an effort to talk through the pain.  “I would rather be dead.”

“Stop it.  No one’s dying today.”  The Doctor said, rejoining them.  At the same time, the head of the Cyberman finally reached her, and lept up at her head.  Trillian got her arms between her and the head just in time, barely holding it off.  Tentacles quickly encircled her head, and she knew it was just a matter of time before it overpowered her.  Trillian heard cries of dismay from Sarah Jane and Harry.

“When I tell you, drop your hands.”  The Doctor told her, unfazed.

“Are you crazy?”  Trillian demanded, no longer able to look back.  He didn’t reply, and she heard him fiddling with something.  Then,

“Now!”  He yelled.  Unquestioning, Trillian quickly dropped her hands.  She saw a cybermat fly through the air before latching onto the head of the Cyberman attacking her.

_Gold_ , Trillian remembered.   _He filled that with gold earlier to stop the other Cybermen._   The Cyberman above her gave a sad electronic cry, before whimpering and dying.  Trillian let her head fall back and spent a moment gulping grateful breaths.  Gruesomely, the now-dead Cyberman’s head fell half on top of hers.  Trillian was no shrinking violet, but seeing through those eyes after nearly becoming a Cyberman herself nearly made her yelp in startled fear.

“Thanks.”  She said, though she wasn’t sure if it was directed at Sarah, Harry, the Doctor, or all three.  Probably the latter.

“Don’t mention it.”  The Doctor replied.  Trillian heard something sliding across the floor towards her, and glanced up to see the pistol next to her head.

“Thought you might want that back.”  Sarah told her with a smile.  Trillian smiled back.  She sat up a little, pulling the Cyber head from hers and dropping it in her lap.  The cybermat had fallen, and she picked it up and tossed it at the Doctor before he could say anything else.

“Better do something with that.”  She said.  As Trillian spoke, she hid her left wrist in front of her, using her words to disguise the beeping as she quickly punched in numbers.  Some coordinates she had memorized, fortunately.  The Doctor caught the cybermat effortlessly, frowning in thought.

“Hold on,”  he started.  “Did you hear…”  Comprehension dawned across his face, and Trillian gave him a small smirk.  “Wait!”  He called, and started towards her.

“Buh-bye!”  Trillian said, and hit send just before her could reach her, and phased out of time.

* * *

 

Trillian landed in a hidden cave beneath Stonehenge sometime in prehistory, the remains of the Cyberman still with her.  She surveyed the wreckage with a sigh.  Detaching this thing wouldn’t be fun.

It took her nearly a half hour to get out of it, as parts of the thing had already begun fusing to her.  It had involved a lot of wiggling, cussing, and scraping, but she was finally out of the nearly-dead Cyberman.  Her pants were badly ripped, and her legs were cut and bloody, but it was done.  She took a deep breath, held it a moment, then let it out.  Now the remains of the Cyberman was where it belonged; lying next to the large metal box that took up the center of the room.

Trillian knew she needed medical attention, and her own supplies wouldn’t do.  There weren’t many places she could go for help.  She hated being a burden on him.  With a sigh, she punched in the only coordinates she could.


	3. The Time a Human Stole From the Time Lords, or Gallifrey part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title kinda speaks for itself.

“That can’t be right!”  The guard exclaimed to the Archival assistant next to him.

“The machine is perfect!  It has to be right!”  The assistant corrected him pompously.  “It’s just useless.”

“What do you mean, useless?  We can stop this, at least!”  The guard stood and started towards the door.

“We can’t!  It’s marked a fixed point in Time!  There’s no point in trying to change it; it’ll just happen this way, anyway.”

The guard returned to his seat and flopped back down.  “Great.  We just received a warning from our time predicting machines that someone is going to steal a vial of the elixir of life from the Archives, but we can’t stop it!  And the video didn’t even show his identity!  I am going to, at least, order a patrol.”

***

An alarm went off in the abandoned corridor.

“Sector 7.  Unauthorized intruders arriving in sector 7.”  As soon as Trillian materialized, she quietly hurried over to press against the nearest wall.  It had been a gamble, coming in in the same room as the Doctor’s TARDIS, but with her invisibility shield on, the guards would likely be more focused on him than her.  Not to mention she’d sent a false signal to a nearby room.  Combine that with the fact that she’d let slip that she was human, and they’d underestimate her.  Probably.  She did, however, have to hurry out of the room.  As soon as the Doctor snuck past the guards, he might spot her.

Trillian breathed as quietly as she could as the guards examined the TARDIS.  She had to stifle a snort at their disbelief that a TARDIS so old couldn’t be much of a threat.

“But sir,” one of the guards started.  “What about the other signal?”

“You mean the human?”  The man in charge answered dismissively.  “Humans are not much of a threat.  Guards are being dispatched now.  I anticipate the human’s capture in short order.  Now, we need a key to get into this TARDIS.”  A group of the guards left, and Trillian seized her chance.  Following at a respectable distance after, she left the dead-end corridor, and proceeded with her plan.  Time was short; she’d have to be fast.  She’d considered leaving a few false leads, but upon checking her available time left on her vortex manipulator, Trillian realized there wouldn’t be time.  She’d just have to hope that they’d be too busy with the Presidential assassination to chase after her.

***

The huge door to the archives creaked open to reveal a pair of guards.

“-said something about a fixed point in time, right here and now, but I don’t notice anything, do you?”  The  first guard to enter asked behind him to his companion.

“It’s all a bit creepy in here, with the door making a racket, but no fixed point.  Did they say anything about who we’re looking for?”

“They didn’t know, if you can imagine that.”  The two guards walked carefully down the long hallway, their stazers loose in their sheaths.  After a few minutes of walking, they reached a vault door on a side wall.  One guard carefully entered a combination, then laboriously pulled it open.  It was a small room, with a little table against the far wall.  On top of the table, was a rack filled with about fifty small vials of a golden liquid.

“There!”  One guard said, gesturing at the table.  “The right number of vials there.  Don’t know what had them so worried.”  He turned away from the table to face the other guard.  The other guard shrugged.

“The machine of theirs probably made a mistake.”  He suggested.

“Or maybe our patrol discouraged him.  What?  Why are you looking at me like that?”

The guard in the doorway’s eyes were wide, and he gestured towards the vials.  “There’s a vial missing!”

“What?!  Impossible!  I just looked!”  He looked back at the table.  Sure enough, there was a conspicuous empty slot in the rack.

“How in Rassilon’s name did he manage that?!  We were both right here!”  They both heard the huge entry door creak open just then.  Their eyes wide, they ran back to the exit.


End file.
